MARK OF HANS PEZOLT, NUREMBERG, 1593-1602

Hans Pezolt (1551-1633) was one of the most productive, most sought-after and artistically talented Nuremberg goldsmiths of the end of the 16th and early 17th century. In that period, he produced a large number of works of which forty or so are extant The Nuremberg City Records show that between 1595-1614 he was commissioned to produce a total of sixty-four lobed cups and eighteen 'pineapple' cups as well as two salt-cellars to be presented to visiting dignitaries including Arch Duke Matthias of Bohemia, later Holy Roman Emperor (1557-1619) and Count Axel Oxenstierna (1583 - 1654), the Swedish Imperial Chancellor. Pezolt's foreign clients included Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), to whom he delivered a silver fountain, and the Bavarian Duke Wilhelm V (1548-1626), to whom he supplied a silver chandelier. After the death of Wenzel Jamnitzer in 1585, Pezolt became the leading Nuremberg goldsmith and pioneered the Gothic revival style subsequently embraced by his contemporaries including amongst others Hans Kellner, Christoph Jamnizter and Hans Beutmüller.
Several examples of this form of cup known as Buckelpokal are recorded including one dated 1578-1591 with arms of the Kress family in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg illustrated in K. Tebbe, Nürnberger Goldschmiedekunst 1541-1868, Nürnberg, 2007, vol. 2, p. 174, fig.. 144.and one dated 1593-1602 adorned in the lid with the enameled portrait of Andreas Imhof illustrate in M. Bachtler, Goldschmiedekunst, Bielefeld, 1986, fig. 8.